Civil society seems like a quaint phrase to refer to the Filipino middle class. One might hasten to guess that the name stems from a disinclination to use the word “class” to describe a strata of society. Class points immediately to Karl Marx’s concept of class struggle. Given the current unpopularity of Marxism, one understands why such a phrase as “civil society” might come in handy to describe the people who were at the forefront of change in Edsa when the Philippines finally became free from decades of Marcos’ martial law.
It is a shame that since that time civil society seems to have faded into the background giving way for traditional Filipino political elite to return back to power. The problems that affect the country now stems from that historical drift. While it was a drift obviously away from authoritarianism and dictatorship towards the return of democratic institutions like elections and representational rule, this drift was also characterized by the resurrection of pre-martial law corruption of an unprecedented scale. The press releases said the country was returning to the democratic rule of law. But the truth, it now appears, was far from that.
This return to the old democratic processes favored old political dynasties who quickly reestablished themselves over their pre-martial law domains. It was always the tradition for elections to be won with hard cash. Only those with very deep pockets aspire for positions. The higher the positions, the greater the budget required. Until one could not help but wonder:
If these positions cost this much, how can any politician ever hope to recover that amount legitimately? It cannot be that anyone would spend those amounts just for the chance to serve the people.
The recent pork barrel scandal only retells a narrative most people suspected all along. Even so, the scale of it, how the players seemed to pursue their roles with such an unwavering sense of impunity is absolutely astounding.
It reads like something straight out of a magic realist novel, something perhaps written from the imaginings of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
One sees this especially in the way the story crosses over family lineage, the network of family friends, the parties they held among each other to cement opportunities for future political and economic gains.
To be sure, only a few politicians are now at the receiving end of investigations and possible prosecution. But as one might guess, the problem goes deeper than this. It covers as well a much wider breadth. And while few want to bring the question to its most fundamental end; the fact is, we should be seeing here an endgame of a sort for traditional Philippine ruling elite.
The corruption cannot continue. The country must free itself from the choke hold of people who use political positions for economic gain. It is high time we have leaders who come from somewhere else besides old family dynasties and the ruling elite. It is high time for civil society to once again empower itself and exert more influence over the collective political life.
The end of the pork barrel system will for a time discourage traditional politicians. But one must expect that in due time they will establish for themselves another network for large-scale corruption.
This after all has been their traditional means for holding on to power. Before that happens, civil society should pursue all efforts to displace corrupt traditional politicians. The coming elections will be a litmus test.